Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, at a coffee shop in Denver on Friday, Sept. 12, 2014. (Jon Murray, The Denver Post)

It’s no secret several of Colorado’s political races are drawing national attention (yet again). But trying to help Sen. Mark Udall defeat his Republican challenger, U.S. Rep. Cory Gardner, and Andrew Romanoff unseat Republican U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman isn’t the only reason for a three-day visit to Colorado this week by Ilyse Hogue, president of national abortion rights advocacy group NARAL Pro-Choice America.

She’s also here, through Saturday night, because anti-abortion advocates are making their third electoral try at passing a Colorado personhood-type amendment. Hogue and her allies are fighting a similar (though more far-reaching) proposed amendment this year in North Dakota that looks more like past efforts in Colorado. Here, proposed Amendment 67 is aimed explicitly at adding unborn children to protections in the criminal code and the wrongful death law.

It says: “In the interest of protecting mothers and their unborn children from criminal offenses and unborn children from criminal offenses and negligent and wrongful acts, the words ‘person’ and ‘child’ in the Colorado criminal code and Colorado death act must include unborn human beings.”

But Hogue is among those who believe the limited-sounding wording would have far-reaching effects including outlawing abortion and potentially restricting birth control, assertions that Amendment 67 backers dispute (more on that later).

Hogue, during an interview at a coffee shop on East Colfax Avenue Friday morning, said she hoped Colorado voters — who are used to passionate discussions about such measures — don’t get complacent about Amendment 67’s chances. Previous tries to pass stronger personhood measures failed by 70 percent or more of the vote in Colorado in 2008 and 2010.

“The Personhood USA folks know that 12 losses will be erased by a single win,” Hogue said. “Everybody forgets about the losses. That’s why they keep coming back, and why they keep coming back in a state like Colorado. … (Amendment 67 backers) also are doubling down on resources, and they learn from each battle. That’s why they don’t use ‘personhood’ now, because they know that loses (with voters). … They’re getting more savvy in their language.”

Hogue is helping to open a Vote NO 67 field office in Stapleton Saturday as well as a Romanoff field office, and she plans to go out on door-to-door teams for each. She’ll also attending a Women for Udall event Friday night. She’s made other visits to Denver this year, and she may be back again before the Nov. 4 election.

Of course, as candidates go, there’s a reason she’s focused mostly on helping Udall and Romanoff: They’ve been debating Coffman and Gardner about the congressmen’s past support for personhood measures; both Republicans have distanced themselves from such stances. (Read about Gardner here, and Coffman here.)

Hogue says activists’ work on both sides of the Amendment 67 fight could affect turnout, impacting other races in one way or another.

“Colorado is not a state that’s afraid to fight on these issues,” Hogue said, unlike some more conservative states where Democrats shy away from battle on abortion and other issues.

I called Susan Sutherland from Colorado Right to Life, one of the amendment’s chief supporters, to ask if she thought Hogue’s work and that of other national abortion-rights groups would resonate with Colorado voters.

Sutherland had plenty to say. While Amendment 67 opponents are unloading about far-ranging potential consequences of this year’s version of the amendment, Sutherland took Hogue and others to task for what she considers fear-mongering.

“From our side, we just wish that we could have an honest discussion,” said Sutherland, the group’s vice president. “I would ask her why Planned Parenthood and NARAL think so little of women that they think these women are not capable of making a decent decision about Amendment 67. How does lying about it help them?”

She pointed to claims by the Vote NO 67 campaign and others that Amendment 67 could impede access to some forms of contraception and that pregnant women could be denied access to some life-saving medical treatments. Those claims are based on the idea that the amendment’s expansion of persons to include “unborn human beings” would give unborn children constitutional rights that would serve as a toe-hold for challenging other laws.

The Vote NO 67 campaign points to talking points on Colorado Right to Life’s website that includes an urging for the amendment’s backers to “Please support the abolition of human abortion in every way that God enables you.”

But Sutherland says that’s meant to reflect supporters’ common opposition to abortion, not the effect of the amendment if it passes. “Amendment 67 is a fetal homicide bill that’s going to recognize a mother and a baby as victims of crime,” Sutherland said, and no more. She added: “If Roe v. Wade were not the law of the land, Amendment 67 could have that effect. … Unfortunately, Amendment 67 is not a full-blown abortion ban. I’d love to see that. But it’s a different type of measure.”

Past personhood-type measures have split anti-abortion groups in Colorado, and that’s again the case.

Colorado Citizens for Life provided President Steven Ertelt’s take on Amendment 67 to my colleague Lynn Bartels: “Colorado Citizens for Life understands unborn children are unique human beings, or persons, whose lives began at conception and who deserve legal protection from abortion,” Ertelt wrote. “However, a personhood amendment like Amendment 67 will not provide that protection because it would be immediately overturned in court as contravening Roe v. Wade, and it would not be upheld by the Supreme Court. This is why Colorado Citizens for Life is working to pass (other) pro-life legislation that will save unborn children from abortion now, protect women, and protect Coloradans from being forced to pay for abortions with their tax dollars.”

Jon Murray is an enterprise reporter on The Denver Post's government and politics team, with a focus on transportation. He previously covered Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and the workings of city government. A Colorado native, he joined The Denver Post in 2014 after reporting on city government and the legal system for The Indianapolis Star.

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